India to Open Cinema Museum in Mumbai

The National Museum of Indian Cinema will launch in February, tracing the history of all forms of Indian film, from regional to mainstream Bollywood fare.

Following Indian cinema's centennial anniversary last year, a first-of-its-kind museum is set to open next month in Mumbai.

The National Museum of Indian Cinema will open in the government-owned Films Division compound in south Mumbai in February. Funded by the Information and Broadcasting Ministry, the NMIC is expected to feature a treasure trove of Indian cinema memorabilia, such as vintage 1920s cameras, posters and other rarities. The curated objects d'art will also include memorabilia from veteran banners such as Mehboob Studios, RK Studios, South India-based Prasad Studios and the government's National Film Archives of India.

The museum will feature memorabilia from all forms of cinema, ranging from mainstream Hindi-language Bollywood to regional-language cinema. Digitally restored versions of some classic films will also be showcased in the museum's theater.

“As Indian cinema enters a new century, the National Museum of Indian Cinema coming up in Mumbai is a small tribute of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting to the great film heritage of India,” said Minister for Information and Broadcasting Manish Tewari, adding, “We have also launched the $100 million (6 billion rupee) National Film Heritage Mission to digitize the best Indian cinematic works and archive them for the benefit of future generations.”

Tewari also said that the museum will be expanded from its existing 6,000-square-foot space to a 50,000-square-foot facility in forthcoming phases, for which construction is already underway at a neighboring site.

The project is curated by the National Council of Science Museums, which manages 55 different kinds of museums in the country.